At a forum Saturday, Darrick Trent Nighthawk Evensen grad and Chavez Carter grad, the two candidates running to become graduate student elected trustee, said what they would do if elected.
Evensen, who is the graduate and professional students’ current representative on the University’s Board of Trustees, has held the position for two years. He previously served as the president and the finance commission chair for the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly.
Evensen said he hopes to improve communication between students and the Board of Trustees.
Although Evensen said that he thinks “we’ve made progress” on improving communication between students and the Board, he added, “I hope to expand that progress over the next few years.”
Evensen said he also wants to work on improving environmental sustainability at Cornell.
While Cornell performed well in recent rankings of environmental sustainability, “there are a few areas such as sustainability education, sustainable investment, sustainability in operations and management on campus and other areas in which we can still improve,” he said.
Carter is the current president of the Black Graduate Student and Professional Student Association. If elected, he said will tackle mental health issues and increase the transparency of the Board, he said. He added that he would like to see an increase in the number of mental health services available to students on campus. Additionally, Carter said that to increase the Board’s transparency, he hopes to make the role of the graduate student trustee more visible on campus by expanding the circle of organizations that the trustee works with.
The debate was moderated by Juan Forrer ’13, editor-in-chief of The Sun.
Original Author: Utsav Rai